'It seems the Earth Alliance Forces are waiting for me to appear!' After hearing the report, Felix had this suspicion. Collecting his thoughts, he spoke into the communicator.
"Understood. Report promptly if anything happens."
With that, he ended the communication and put on his helmet.
His fingers adjusted the communication settings before he declared:
"I'm launching!"
These four short words reached the maintenance team leader's ears.
The team leader acknowledged with a "Yes" and began making arrangements.
The corridor in front of the GINN opened, releasing the mobile suit from its hanger rack as the rear power cable disconnected from its port. Under Felix's control, the GINN walked out from its rack position.
Exiting the hangar, Felix saw that his Guuru had already been moved out as well.
Adjusting the signals, he established a laser connection with the Guuru.
While controlling the Guuru's takeoff from the ground, Felix simultaneously made the GINN leap upward using its back thrusters.
The jumping GINN reached thirty meters altitude just as the airborne Guuru flew beneath its feet. The mobile suit landed securely on the Guuru.
The feet connected with the pedals on the Guuru, locking mechanisms engaged, and a wired connection was established, replacing the previous laser signal link.
The Guuru's back thrusters activated, outputting powerful propulsion that carried Felix's GINN rushing toward the front lines.
Inside the GINN cockpit:
"Captain, which frontline are you heading to?"
A questioning voice came through the communicator.
Hearing this, Felix responded:
"To the northern front!"
He then ended the communication.
...
Northern Frontline
After several minutes of flight, the intercepting GINN squad arrived. Just as they were about to open fire on the Earth Alliance Forces' ground units, numerous missiles came flying toward them.
Faced with such a volume of missiles, the GINN pilots had no choice but to focus on intercepting the incoming projectiles.
Selecting their weapons and pulling triggers, the missile pods they carried opened, launching the equipped small missiles.
Propelled by their thrusters, the missiles quickly reached appropriate speeds before coasting toward their targets at maintained velocity.
Adjustment nozzles continuously corrected the missiles' flight attitudes.
In the blink of an eye, the missiles intercepted all incoming projectiles. Violent explosions erupted in the sky, the resulting flames forming a fiery wall in the air.
Despite the fiery barrier, the GINN pilots remained vigilant, maneuvering their GINNs and Guurus to evade shells fired from ground battle tanks.
While dodging, they returned fire with their heavy assault machine guns toward the ground tanks.
One shot overturned a tank!
A single shot caused one tank to explode.
Among the ground forces:
"Bastards! What are our air force guys doing?"
Feeling the aerial firepower strikes, the frontline ground commander cursed under his breath. No sooner had he spoken than a comrade's voice came through the communications.
"Naturally, we're here to help you."
Hearing this voice, the commander adjusted the optical sensor angle and spotted Vanguard Fighters appearing on the battlefield. With their arrival, the ZAFT Forces Mobile Suit Unit that had been dominating them from above instantly lost their edge.
"You're a bit late."
A faint smile tugged at his lips as he voiced a lighthearted complaint.
Then he issued an order.
"Open fire on the ZAFT Forces MS in the air!"
"Yes, sir!"
The gunner responded.
Operating the turret to aim at the enemies in the sky was exhausting without radar lock-on capabilities. The gunner had to constantly adjust based on visual tracking.
His finger pressed the trigger, and the electromagnetic cannon fired.
A shell launched from the barrel.
The projectile soared upward but missed its target.
"Damn it, aim properly before shooting!"
"Commander, without radar lock-on, relying solely on optical sensors makes targeting extremely difficult!"
The gunner sounded exasperated.
The commander, who also served as the tank commander, smacked the gunner hard on the back of the head and glared at him fiercely.
"Stop making excuses! Gunners in the past fought battles with just visual aiming when there was no radar. If they could do it, why can't you?"
"That's ancient history now."
The gunner muttered under his breath.
Before his superior could strike again, he hurriedly readjusted and resumed aiming at the sky.
Just as he was lining up a shot, the tank suddenly jolted violently, ruining his hard-won targeting alignment and infuriating him.
Unable to contain his anger, he yelled at the driver.
"Idiot! How are you driving? You wasted all my effort to get the right angle!"
"Screw you! Don't blame me—if I hadn't reacted quickly, you'd be having tea with your grandpa in heaven right now!"
"Both of you, stop arguing!"
The tank commander, irritated by their bickering, growled with a sharp edge in his voice.
Hearing their superior's displeasure, the two fell silent and focused on their tasks.
The gunner continued firing at the sky!
His finger squeezed the trigger, and another shell launched.
The projectile flew rapidly through the air, approaching a Guuru beneath a GINN, when a bullet shot from afar.
The two collided mid-air.
Boom!
A loud explosion echoed.
"Who did that?"
The gunner stared in shock at the precise shot.
Seeing the attack, the commander immediately ordered the driver.
"Execute evasive maneuvers!"
"Already on it!"
The driver replied.
As their electromagnetic cannon tank began to move, a massive bullet rained down from above.
Both the commander and gunner saw it coming.
Their pupils contracted, terror spreading in their eyes.
"Ah—!"
A scream of fear was their final sound in this world.
Boom!
The violent explosion instantly engulfed the entire Tank.
All three individuals lost their lives in this explosion, their bodies unable to remain intact.
In the sky above,
Felix, who had rushed over at extreme speed, maneuvered in mid-air after shooting and destroying the Tank, dodging incoming aerial attacks.
GINN turned and fired a shot.
Boom!
An explosion erupted in the sky as a fighter jet disintegrated mid-air, its fragments raining down toward the ground.